Technology of the Gods: The Incredible Sciences of the Ancients Read online

  Another hypothetical reconstruction can be made by considering how iron may have been smelted accidentally in a copper furnace. When copper sulfide ores are roasted before smelting, they are converted to a reddish oxide, not unlike hematite in appearance. If the smelter used hematite in his furnace instead of copper ore, and under reducing conditions, he would obtain useless, molten iron slag in the furnace bottom instead of molten copper. If, however, he paid attention to the reduced lumps of iron immediately above the slag, he would have found these to be malleable above 1,000° C. While this last phase of the argument may be difficult to accept, it seems reasonable to argue that the idea of producing metals from mineral ores would have prompted experimentation with a variety of ores. In fact, it may not be necessary to postulate the accidental charging of a furnace with iron ore; deliberate experiments with different ores may have taken place. Familiarity with the properties of meteoric iron may have facilitated the recognition of iron as a usable material after it had been produced, accidentally or intentionally, a number of times. The fact that the earliest iron was produced in the early phases of the Bronze Age, and in those areas with the most accomplished metallurgical industries, strengthens the viewpoint of deliberate experimentation. It should also be considered that iron was regarded as a precious metal for many centuries after its discovery; the earlier economic success of the production of gold and silver probably provided considerable incentive toward the discovery of metals which could confer similar monetary rewards on the successful smelter. While the exact procedure by which iron was first smelted can thus only be guessed at, we do know what new techniques were required to produce a usable object from these early products of the bloomery process. ‘The discovery of man-made iron... had not awaited the evolution of a basically new smelting process; it was almost entirely the outcome of hammering a hot, spongy aggregate of metal, slag and dirt.’ Thus the arts of the blacksmith were born, beginning a long period of technological evolution which was eventually to give rise to the Iron Age proper.97

  There are two general processes in the manufacturing of iron: the “bloomery process,” a simpler process, and the “direct process.” Says van der Merwe, “A major impetus of the Iron Age proper was the discovery of cementation, the technique by which steel can be produced from bloomery or wrought iron and which is generally associated with the bloomery process. The discovery of this technique is usually attributed to the Chalybes, subjects of the Hittites, and dates to about 1500—1400 BC. The Hittites are thought to have maintained a strict monopoly on the manufacture of the new alloy, enabling them to keep prices at an artificially high level. This viewpoint is based on interpretations of a letter from the Hittite king, Hattusilis III (1281—1260 BC), to an unknown correspondent and is the subject of some dispute.“97

  A Hittite relief.

  Iron was the most expensive metal in ancient times—when it could be obtained at all! Van der Merwe mentions that “the price of iron during the early stages of the Hittite confederacy (early second millennium BC) is known to have been five times that of gold and forty times that of silver, and it must have been even more expensive during the third millennium BC. At such prices, iron objects are likely to have been traded as marks of status among the royalty of ancient Near Eastern kingdoms, thus achieving a distribution which is much wider than the actual areas of manufacture.” 97

  Ultimately, the Hittites were destroyed, their capital city of Hattusas vitrified by intense heat, and the modern Iron Age began, according to historians. The secrets of smelting iron were disseminated around the Mediterranean. One question remains: did other nations, such as India and China already possess the secret of iron?

  Metallurgy in Ancient India and China

  The mystery of the use of iron in India and China is one that largely baffles modern metallurgists. It is assumed that these countries developed iron and other metallurgical skills after the west, but the evidence points otherwise. Nikolass van der Merwe gives the orthodox view: “Spreading east from the Mediterranean, iron was diffused throughout most of Asia before the Christian era. By 1100 BC it was in use in Persia, from where it spread to Pakistan and India. The date of the arrival of iron in India is still a matter of some dispute; until recently, iron was assumed to have reached Northern India around 500 BC, where it appears at the sites of Taxila, Histinapura, and Ahichatra in association with the distinctive ‘Northern Black Polished’ pottery type. Recent excavations at Atranjikhera, in Uttar Pradesh, however, have uncovered iron artifacts in association with ’Painted Grey’ pottery, from an earlier period of the Ganges civilization, and have been dated between 1100 and 1000 BC. Further archaeological work will be necessary to gauge the impact of iron-working knowledge on Northern India, especially regarding the forces which contributed towards the urbanization of the peoples of that area. In the southern part of India, at least, especially in the Deccan, iron seems to have stimulated a veritable ‘revolution’ of this kind.

  “The transmission of iron-working knowledge to China, if it took place at all, is a problem which remains unsolved. The possibility exists that iron was carried to China by the nomadic tribes of the Eurasian steppes. During the latter half of the first millennium BC the Sarmatians, a tribe closely related to the Scythians, are known to have occupied the region adjoining Kansu, in Northwest China. The Sarmatians relied primarily on bronze as a source of metal, although using iron to a limited extent. Their penetration to Northwest China is marked by the appearance of their distinctive ‘Animal Art Style’ in Mongolia and Ordos, where it is dated to circa 500 BC—and possibly earlier. Since iron appears in China during the sixth century BC, and perhaps earlier, it is doubtful whether the Sarmatians did, in fact, carry the knowledge of iron to China. If they did, it was at best a case of stimulus diffusion, since the Chinese did not adopt the direct process, which had been the exclusive method for the production of iron until that time. Instead, cast iron was apparently manufactured in China from this early date on, and the techniques of the indirect process were evolved.“ 97

  A simple stone mold.

  Iron is traditionally said not to have been worked in the Americas. Says van der Merwe, “In the New World, iron cannot be said to have achieved any widespread use before Colonial times. Small quantities of trade iron, however, penetrated to Northern Alaska by way of Siberia. Iron has been found in an early context in a site of the Ipiutak culture at Point Hope, Alaska; on the other side of the Bering Strait, iron occurs in an Old Bering Sea site at Uelen on the Chukchi coast. Both of these cultures have been dated to about AD 300. Iron was not manufactured in the New World, however, until Viking colonists introduced it to Newfoundland around AD 1000.”97

  Archaeologists, however, are ignoring the evidence for iron-smelting furnaces discovered in Ohio. Arlington Mallery in his book, The Rediscovery of Lost America,132gives details on the discovery of several iron furnaces from southern Ohio that were used in prehistoric times. One furnace that Mallery uncovered in the Allyn Mound near Frankfort, Ohio was of a beehive type with charcoal and iron ore found inside. The mound was about 60 feet in diameter and seven feet high. Mallery compared the furnace to the primitive Agaria iron smelters still used in India.

  Mallery’s book had an introduction by Matthew W. Sterling, then Director of the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. Sterling said in the introduction, “It will be difficult to convince American archeologists that there was a pre-Columbian iron age in America. This startling item, however, is one that should not long remain in doubt. The detailed studies of metallurgists and the new carbon-14 dating method should be sufficient to give a definite answer on this point.”132 in doubt. The detailed studies of metallurgists and the new carbon-14 dating method should be sufficient to give a definite answer on this point.“132

  The Iron Pillar of Delhi

  In the southern district of New Delhi is the famed Iron Pillar, generally believed to date from the fourth century AD, but said by some scholars to be over fou
r thousand years old. It was built as a memorial to a king named Chandra. It is a solid shaft of iron sixteen inches in diameter and twenty-three feet high. What is most astounding about it is that it has never rusted even though it has been exposed to wind and rain for centuries! The pillar defies explanation, not only for not having rusted, but because it is apparently made of pure iron, which can only be produced today in tiny quantities by electrolysis! The technique used to cast such a gigantic, solid iron pillar is also a mystery, as it would be difficult to construct another of this size even today. The pillar stands as mute testimony to the highly advanced scientific knowledge that was known in antiquity, and not duplicated until recent times. Yet still, there is no satisfactory explanation as to why the pillar has never rusted!43

  To add to the evidence that ancient India had highly advanced smelting works, the monthly Motilal Banarsidass Newsletterfrom New Delhi, India reported in its July 1998 edition that findings by the State Archaeology Department after excavations in Sonebhadra district, Lucknow, India, may revolutionize history as regards to the antiquity of iron. The department has unearthed iron artefacts dated between 1200—1300 BC at the Raja Nal Ka Tila site in the Karmanasa river valley of north Sonebhadra.

  The Iron Pillar of Delhi.

  Said the newsletter, “Radio carbon dating of one of the samples done by the Birbal Sahani Institute of Palaeobotany has established that it belongs to 1300 BC, taking the antiquity of iron at least 400 years back, even by conservative estimates. This date of iron is one of the earliest in the Indian sub-continent.”

  And, these are conservative estimates indeed. As we have already seen, there is considerable evidence that mining and iron working have gone on long before 1300 BC. Indeed, if the futuristic (it seems odd to call tales of the past “futuristic”) epics of ancient India are any indication, there must have been a great deal of metallurgical activity in ancient India, starting over 20,000 years ago!

  The Mysterious Origin of Aluminum

  In 1959 Communist Chinese archaeologists claimed that they had discovered ancient Chinese belt buckles in a tomb. They were several thousand years old, the newpaper accounts said, but, incredibly, they were made of aluminum. Aluminum is a curious metal, because the smelting process from bauxite requires electricity! Photos of the belt buckles appeared in the French language magazine Revue de l‘Aluminum, issue number 283, published in 1961 and reproduced here.

  The modern process for extracting aluminum from bauxite was not perfected until 1886. This discovery, as well, is very curious. Most aluminum produced today is made from bauxite. First discovered in 1821 near Les Baux, France (from which its name is derived), bauxite is an ore rich in hydrated aluminum oxides, formed by the weathering of such siliceous aluminous rocks as feldspars, nepheline, and clays. During weathering the silicates are decomposed and leached out, leaving behind a residue of ores rich in alumina, iron oxide, titanium oxide, and some silica. In general, economically attractive ores contain at least 45 percent alumina and no more than five percent to six percent silica.

  Most of the large bauxite deposits are found in tropical and subtropical climates, where heavy rainfall, warm temperatures, and good drainage combine to encourage the weathering process. Because bauxite is always found at or near the surface, it is mined by open-pit methods. It is then crushed if necessary, screened, dried, milled, and shipped for processing. Australia, Guinea, Jamaica, Brazil, and India are leading bauxite producers.

  Although proof of the existence of aluminum as a metal did not exist until the 1800s, clays containing the metallic element were used in Iraq as long ago as 5300 BC to manufacture high-quality pottery. Certain other aluminum compounds such as the “alums” were used widely by Egyptians and Babylonians as early as 2000 BC. Despite these early uses of the “metal of clay,” however, it was almost 4,000 years before the metal was freed from its compounds, which made it a commercially usable metal.

  Credit for first separating aluminum metal from its oxide goes to the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted. In 1825 he reported to the Royal Danish Academy that he accomplished this by heating anhydrous aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam and distilling off the mercury. His product was so impure, however, that he did not succeed in determining its physical properties beyond observing a metallic luster.

  In 1845, after many years of experimentation, Friedrich Wohler succeeded—by substituting potassium for the amalgam—in producing globules of aluminum large enough to allow the determination of some of its properties. In 1854, Henri Sainte-Claire Deville substituted sodium for the relatively expensive potassium and, by using sodium aluminum chloride instead of aluminum chloride, produced the first commercial quantities of aluminum in a small plant near Paris. Bars and various objects made of this metal were shown at the Paris Exposition in 1855, and the ensuing publicity was in large measure responsible for launching the industry.

  In 1886, Charles Martin Hall of Oberlin, Ohio, and Paul L. T. Heroult of France, discovered and patented almost simultaneously the process by which alumina is dissolved in molten cryolite and decomposed electrolytically. This reduction process, generally known as the Hall-Heroult process, has survived many attempts to supplant it; it remains the only method by which aluminum is produced in commercial quantities today. The inventors’ families made millions, and ultimately billions, of dollars. Aluminum is made all over the world, usually where bauxite can be found and electricity is cheap, such as at hydroelectric plants.

  Aluminum is the most abundant metal on the planet, but requires electricity to create metal in a usable form. Indeed, the invention of aluminum extraction is of incalculable benefit to mankind, providing us the advanced metallurgy science that is necessary for inventions such as flight and space travel.

  The belt buckles discovered by the Chinese in 1959 make us wonder, were these artifacts made using electricity? The aluminum smelting process from bauxite requires electricity! French scientists studied the buckles and published their studies in 1961. They concluded that the ancient Chinese were making aluminium by an unknown process.

  Mining and Metal Anomalies

  There are many ancient mines in southern Africa, and many have curious stone ruins to go along with them. The archaeologist J. Theodore Bent, who excavated some of the ruins in 1891 and wrote The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland in 1892, said that a Roman coin of the reign of Antoninus Pius (138 AD) was found in a mine shaft at Umtali.58

  But mines in southern Africa have been dated to much older periods than that, going back 5,000 years or more. Some mines in southern Africa have been dated to 50000 BC. William Corliss quotes from a 1967 article in the British science journal Nature on the subject of mines in southern Africa that have been dated to circa 26000 BC! Among the amazingly ancient mines were manganese and iron mines.

  Says the article, “The only ancient manganese mine yet recorded is in southern Africa, at Chowa near Broken Hill, Zambia... The Kafufulamadzi Hills, 3 miles away, revealed Later Stone Age Assemblages in quartz, together with manganese tools identical to those found in the working ...[W]orkings at the Ngwenya Iron Mine in western Swaziland... yielded flaked stone mining tools similar to those from Chowa Found in 1934.”5

  Carbon dating of charcoal nodules at the lowest levels of the mines gave the astonishing dates of 22,280 BP and 28,000 BP (Before Present). Samples of the charcoal nodules were given to Yale University and the University of Groningen (Netherlands) Laboratories for carbon-14 dating. Yale came up with the date spread of 22,280±400 BP/ 20,330±400 BP. The Groningen Laboratories came up with the date spread of 28,130 ±260 BP/ 26,180 ±260 BP.5 Clearly, there is evidence that iron and other metals have been mined for thousands of years in Southern Africa, and probably other areas of the world as well.

  Rene Noorbergen in his book, Secrets of the Lost Races,3tells a bizarre tale. Under the subtitle Who Shot Rhodesian Man?, Noorbergen states that someone apparently shot one of these ancient miners. At the Museum of Natural History in London there is an exhibi
t of a human skull discovered near Broken Hill, Rhodesia, in 1921. “On the left side of the skull is a hole, perfectly round. There are none of the radial cracks that would have resulted had the hole been caused by a weapon such as an arrow or a spear,” says Noorbergen. “Only a high-speed projectile such as a bullet could have made such a hole. The skull directly opposite the hole is shattered, having been blown out from the inside. This same feature is seen in victims of head wounds received from shots from a high-powered rifle. No slower projectile could have produced either the neat hole or the shattering effect. A German forensic authority from Berlin has positively stated that the cranial damage to Rhodesian man’s skull could not have been caused by anything but a bullet. If a bullet was indeed fired at Rhodesian man, then we may have to evaluate this in the light of two possible conclusions: Either the Rhodesian remains are not as old as claimed, at most two or three centuries, and he was shot by a European colonizer or explorer; or the bones are as old they are claimed to be, and he was shot by a hunter or a warrior belonging to a very ancient yet highly advanced culture.